Unfinished: Sentris

Cool, been looking forward to this since I heard Samantha talking about what it actually is. Might have to get it tonight.

Been waiting for this QL for ages, since I could never understand what Sentris actually was. Hopefully Prof. Brad and Drew can help.

Music game.

Doesn't seem like a fantastic game to me based on this QL. It looks like a music game you can play without sound and not be at any sort of disadvantage, or even feel like you're missing out a great deal.

Well, this is weird. Doesn't feel like the puzzles are challenging and just playing it to create music, well, let's say there are better games out there for that.

I think Drew put it best. It's a puzzle game where you can choose to focus on solving the puzzles and any music you make is incidental, or a music synthesizer that happens to also solve some puzzles.

This seems like a game you can play when you're sleepy, or sick, or high, and get a good sleep out of it.

I think the biggest mystery about Sentris is that from what I've seen thus far there isn't much puzzling or a game there. You are mostly just creating music and maybe satisfying some fast and loose requirements along the way.

A lot of people, myself included, might make the connection to Tetris based on the name, but it seems to have very little in common with it.

MAN! Don't watch this in fullscreen. after they left the game the first time and went to the menu it fucked with my eyes like rock band/guitar hero, but in a CIRCLE!

Besides that the game seems neat.

Is it weird that this left me a little nauseated? Never had that happen before. It looks cool though.

Wasn't there going to be a QLEX of this? I thought you guys did one when Samantha was there.

This doesn't seem that great. Puzzles are almost detrimental to the music and the random music seems too random with little control over how the notes are played. Fract OSC seems way more competent in both respects with better a art style and lower price tag.

As someone who knows a fair amount about music theory, I think that the music aspect of this sounds looks totally unsatisfactory for putting together anything that actually sounds good. At the very least give me a key along the side telling me what step in the scale each color corresponds to. And if there are only 7 colors, that means you're really limited in what you create, too.

This looks pretty neat.

I can understand why Brad and Drew want to give this the most positive spin possible, but this game doesn't look fun at all. The music that can be created seems difficult to do, considering you only have colors to go by, not actual instrument names.

I picked this up the other day, didn't have time to figure out all the mechanics but it's certainly promising. Samantha said all the right things to get me excited for it during her Bombcast appearance; I love anything that creates a bridge between gameplay and audio synthesis.

Really need to do a Quicklook EX of this so it can be explained what is going on.

Yeah, that's why I watched it. I expected a circular tetris.

The QL makes it look like the puzzles don't seem to be the real focus of the game, but the music aspect isn't appealing either. It looks like it requires a time investment to figure out this system/symbols/colours that just isn't worth it. I could also get the kaossilator app and make a sick beat without any time investment and learning curve.

This looks really cool, but I am totally tone deaf and just cant make my brain understand how music is constructed and always things it's amazing that people can just know how to generate music.

This is a really awful representation of what this game is trying to do. It's more about making music than trying to solve the puzzles. I don't like to be negative, but this really bothered me.

Ye, this game has some issues regarding how it's visuals may affect people. Might just be the current simplicity of the graphics that forces you to focus on the constant rotational movement, but I didn't even finish the QL and already feel sorta queasy and the beginning of eye/head-ache.

This basically spits out a bunch of Nobukazu Takemura tracks. Not a bad thing.

YES!

Maybe once you actually understand how it works it becomes interesting, but I'm not feeling compelled to try this out as it stands. Also I found that really nauseating to watch, which probably didn't help.

I am ok with this not being much of a game, but i wish i could make some better music come out of it.

I'm no expert on Casinos, but my guess is all the machines are in Cmaj in order to avoid machines in different keys from clashing tonally with one another.

Nothing special about that key, so much as needing a base standard.

I think Drew put it best with that stirring War Pigs rendition.

Actually yeah, this is one game I'd love to see an EX of. Samantha described it in a pretty compelling way on the podcast, having her demonstrate it would go a long way.

Kinda wish this was a QL EX. Brad giving up halfway through and spamming notes didn't really help me understand what this game is supposed to be. I imagine with a little more work and a proper tutorial, it could be neat, though!

@brad @drew

Resident music theorist here. Tuning to 440hz isn't actually "tied" to the pitch 'C' but rather 'A' as all string instruments have an "open" A (no fingering required). Brad is correct about the tuning standard being different though (wind instrumentals tend to play sharper).

Super interested in this game. It's pretty much inevitable that I buy this. Music games are "my jam," as the youth might say.

Edit: WHOAOAO this game does the Guitar Hero/Rock Band effect of staring at the rotating notes for long enough and looking away makes your vision look like it's rotating. Wild.

#GAMERGATE THEY DIDNT DISCLOSE THEIR FRIENDSHIP WITH SAMANTHA KALMAN OMG CORRUPTION RABBLE RABBLE

... oh wait they did...

Well I can add Sentris to my list of games that make me feel sick (The other being Beatles Rockband) Couldn't even make it to the end of the QL. I think it has something to do with the play field and the background moving at the same time.

It's a shame as with a good tutorial this game could be kind of neat.

Man, I really want to like this... thing, but at the moment it seems like it's not really a game, and the music sequencing part of it is about as complicated as the one in Frequency. Seems like it'd be more fun to just get an actual sequencer.

I dunno....it looks alright I guess? Probably nothing for me though

Got to play this last weekend at a music/arts festival in Seattle Center; can't say it was really my thing. Looked like a fun toy to play with for a little bit, but I can't see much of a compelling game to be made out of it that I'd care about.

@cyberfunk: What...

I think the puzzles are there mainly to force you to be creative. Not to make it a "game" in the normal video game sense. Kind of how a poetic meter is a puzzle that forces a writer to explore new things when trying to write something. You may set out to create one thing but the restrictions can lead you to discover something new in order to also solve the "puzzle".

@generaldas: My brain is melting trying to understand what you said but it was pretty interesting !

Too complex for me, still really cool learning about this stuff thanks to Brad and glad this has been made. Samantha Kalman is a rad gal.

This doesn't seem as complicated as Brad is making it.

It's a puzzle game that makes some really interesting music for itself. It's also made by a champion video game wrestler! I will totally grab this game.

It's not really very hard to get your head around either. Fill the glowing blank slots with blocks and push blocks a level down with other blocks...

+1 for queasiness watching fullscreen on a tv (not sure if it was the rotation, pulsing colors, or what). Was only able to watch 10 minutes of it, which is a shame because I really would like to wrap my head around the game.

This x100

The symbols on the colored blocks might represent an ADSR envelope (Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release) Basically is an amplitude envelop you will work with on almost any synth, hardware or software base.

Just watching this video gave me insane amounts of eye-strain. I hope playing the game doesn't produce this kind of reaction because it really is a problem for me.

Can't wait to play with this!

Seems cool. I love music games and apps, me. Hope I can import my own samples. That would be awesome.

Sorry fellas, this doesn't look like my thing at all.

Oh fuck yes!

I bought this the instant it became available on the heels of her superb appearance on the Bombcast. One of the coolest guests you guys have had for a long time. Unfortunately though I couldn't fully understand it, so I'm even more excited to see Brad has figured it out. So good!

Samantha Kalman; Unity Queen.

looked interesting, but gave me a headache and seemed overly complex.